The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-28
MR.. LAMAR'S BOSH.

MI. LAMAh'S BUSH.
The address of Secretary Lamar on the un-
yelling of the Calhoun monument was very
carefully prepared and showed much research,
labor and thought In its complete form it
would fill more than ten columns of the Jour-
nal, closely printed. AS a literary perform
ance it was highly creditable to the author.
and in style and form it was all that such an
address should be. 1t contained much that is
admirable, and students of political history
can study it with equal pleasure and profit.
The main faults Of the address, and these
were conspicuous. were the tendency to exalt
the civilization of the South, and to magnify
the character, abilities, genius and patriotism
of Mr.. Calhoun. Perhaps both of these
peculiarities were to be expected the first
because Mr.. Lamar is himself Southerner
of the Southerners, and the second because
biographers, funeral orators and monument
unveilers are always prone to indulge in
panegyric. AS an example of the former,
take the following. Referring to Mr. Cal
houn's retired mode of life when at home, the
speaker said
would that / had the power to portray
Southern planters home The sweet and
noble associations, the pure. refining. and
eevating atmosphere of household presided
over by Southern matron; the abode of do
mestic joys and duties; the peaceful yet
active life of large land owner-occupation
full of interest and high moral responsibilities;
the alliance between mans intellect and nat
ure's laws of production; the hospitality, heart
felt, simple and generous. The Southern
planter was far from being the self-indulgent,
INDECENT, coarse and oyerbearing person that
he has sometimes been pictured. He was, in
general, careful, patient. provident, industri-
ous forbearing, and yet firm and determined.
These were the qualities which enabled him
to take race of untamed savages, with habits
that could only inspire disgust, with no arts,
no single tradition of civilization, and out of
such a people to make the finest body of agri-
cultural and domestic laborers that the world
has ever seen; and, indeed, to elevate them in
the scale of rational existence to such a
height as to cause them to be deemed fit for
admission into the charmed circle of American
freedom and 70 be clothed with the rights
and duties of American citizenship"
This is all bosh-an attempt by the art of
rhetoric and the aid of imagination to throw
bright halo around a civilization which was
thoroughly superficial and rotten at the core
Read between the lines, it is eulogy of
slavery. The 'sweet and noble associations"
of the Southern planters home were in reality
founded on robbery; and his boosted hospital
ity, which at its best was crude and uncouth
compared with the hospitality of refined
Northern home, was the easy result of the
stolen labor OF others. There is no harm nor
illwill in saying this now. It is the simple
truth of history. The talk about the ''moral
responsibilities" of the large STAKEHOLDER and
of savages" into "the finest body of agricult-
ural and domestic laborers that the world has
ever seen" is equally bombastic and untrue.
It is rather late in the day to pronounce a
post-mortem eulogy on slavery as great
Christian propaganda, and Shareholders,
| traders and overseers as disinterested mission
aries. The colored people owe no debt of
| gratitude to those who enslaved their ances.
tors and scourged them through the period
of their bondage. If an overruling Provi-
dence made this wrath of man to serve Him,
and finally brought the blacks up out of the
slough their elevation in the scale of natural
existence was not due to any philanthropie
efforts of their owners. This disposition te
eulogize Southern civilization and society
crops out in other parts of the address.
With the orators tendency to eulogize Cal
houn out of all reason, and to make him the
bright particular star in the armament Of
American statesmen and patriots, no grea
fault can be found. It is the business o.
eulogists to eulogize. When other monu
that John G. Calhoun was not the only grea
and good man and true patriot the countr,
has produced. A more important matter il
Mr.. Lamars elaborate defense of the doctrine
of notification as originated and advocated b,
Mr.. Calhoun, and the attempt to make it ap
pear that it did not NEAR. disunion or seces
SlOU 3 lis part VI TIC dOCIcSS, duiuITdDl
like all the rest for literary style, is simply al
exercise at verbal hair-splitting and logica
jugglery. The orator quoted at considerable
length from Calhoun's speeches to prove tina
notification did not mean and would not lea,
to secession, and gives it his own indorsemen
by saying Whatever may be the objection
to this doctrine, it must be admitted that j
had not in it one element of disunion ]
might have proved cumbrous and obstructiv
in the operations of the government; it Nigh
have impaired its promptness, and vigor, an
energy of action, and probably would; but ha
it been recognized and acted upon by the fec
eral government it would have ever prevente
a resort to secession on the one hand or RI
sort to force on the other"
This was not Andrew Jacksons opinion
nor the opinion of most of the public men
Calhouns day, not to speak of the long lin
ofstatesmen and patriots who have followe
him, whose Judgment, as we'll as the con
mon sense of the people, was that nullific'
ton, in its logical and inevitable conclusion
did mean secession. Mr.. Calhoun may M